SOME ACCOUNT OF THE NUTMEG AND ITS CULTIVATION. 645 
tuity. I would advise the man who wishes to institute a plantation 
to select the virgin forest, and of all things let him avoid deserted 
Gambier plantations the 3oil of which is completely exhausted, the Chi¬ 
nese taking good care never to leave a spot until they have taken all 
they can out of it. A cleared spot has great attraction for the inex¬ 
perienced, and it is not easy to convince a man that it is less expensive 
to attack the primitive forest, than to attempt to clear an old Gambier 
plantation overrun with the Lalang grass ; but the cutting down and 
burning of large forest trees is far less expensive than the e xtirpa- 
tion of the l&iang, and as the Chinese leave all the stumps of the 
large trees in the ground, it is also more difficult to remove them in 
this state than when you have the powerful lever of the trunk to aid 
you in tearing up their roots, setting aside the paramount advant¬ 
age that in the one case you possess a fresh and fertile soil, in the 
other an effete and barren one, for if there he any one plant more 
than another capable of impoverishing and wearing out land, it is the 
Gambier plant. 
Forest land, or jungle as we call it in these parts, can he cleared 
for about from 25 to 30 Dollars per acre by contract, but the Plant¬ 
er had better be careful to have every stump and root of tree re¬ 
moved, ere he ventures to commence planting, or the white ants, at¬ 
tracted by the dead wood, will crowd into the land, and having con¬ 
sumed the food thus prepared for them, will not be slow in attacking 
the young trees. Whilst the Planter is thus clearing the ground, he 
may advantageously at the same time be establishing nurseries:—for 
these the ground ought to be well trenched and mixed with a small 
quantity of thoroughly decomposed manure and burned earth, mak¬ 
ing up the earth afterwards into beds of about 3 feet wide with paths 
between them, for the convenience of weeding and cleaning the young 
plants. Of course, if the planter can obtain really good plants the pro¬ 
duce of well selected seed, it will be a great saving of time and ex¬ 
pense to him, but unless the seed be carefully chosen, I would pre¬ 
fer beginning my own nurseries, and in the selection of seed would 
recommend the most perfectly ripe and spherical nuts. Oval long 
nuts are to be rejected, particularly any of a pule color at one end. 
Few things tend more to ultimate success than good seed, therefore 
too much attention cannot be bestowed upon it. I am of opinion that 
Planters have been hitherto very careless on this subject, hence we 
see such varieties of the tree, which is becoming every day what the 
gardeners in England call more sportive; this also partly arises from 
